There Is Such A Thing As Too Much Power
by kissoftheblackrose
Summary: After everything with the Big Three's children, no one suspects to have even more powerful halfbloods than that. Still, Riley Carter, finds herself proving them wrong. Her parentage goes beyond that of even the Titans. A new adventure unfolds at her feet.
1. Attacked

Riley sat beneath a shady tree, sketch book in hand. She was tired and bored that day, so she didn't really feel like talking to her friends. Her pencil scarred the blank page with its granite lines. To tell the truth she had no idea what she was drawing. In fact, Riley was paying so little attention to the picture, that she might as well have been making scribbles. So much was on her mind. Why were three people following her around like lost puppies? They'd been at school for two months! They should know how everything worked by now!

_Damn it!_, Riley thought, slamming her pencil down. _Even drawing doesn't help!_ In despair, she buried her head into her lap, and hugged her knees to her chest. Riley hated worrying about things. It wasted her time and didn't help anyone. But this situation just simply wouldn't leave her alone!

"Hi Riley!"

"Gah!", the girl screamed and jumped in her seat.

Speaking of which…

Riley whipped her head to see behind her. Right there, at the foot of the tree right next to her, was Jessica. She was one of the people she was having a problem with. Freshmen were usually annoying without the obnoxious attitude and the tendency to follow you around _everywhere you go,_ but Jessica was the worst.

"Jeez! Don't scare me like that!", Riley shouted in protest and caught her breath.

"Watcha doin?", Jessica asked, rocking back and forth on her toes.

Riley sighed. "Well, I _was_ drawing," she answered. Looking down at the paper, Riley was surprised to find that she did draw something moderately decent. It was a wolf running through a snowy wood, leaping over a small hill. That annoyed her. Normally, she couldn't draw any kind of animal for her life, and it took an annoying situation and a frustrated attitude to make it possible.

"Wow, you're good," Jessica complemented, leaning over Riley's shoulder.

"Thanks," was the emotionless reply. Now, don't mistake Riley for rude. Usually she was quite happy to hear complements about her art, but she was a tad miffed at the fact that she could only draw something with fur when she was in a bad mood. Closing the book of blank pages (save for a select few) Riley stood and began to walk off.

"So Riley," Jessica said, ignoring the girl's obvious desire to be left alone and following her. "What do you want to do?"

"Sleep," she replied honestly. Jessica giggled

"Yeah, they should give us longer time to sleep in."

"Uh-huh," Riley answered with no emotion. Normally she was the liveliest on the particular subject, but Jessica had discovered this rather quickly and the conversation tired in Riley's interest.

"School should start at like, twelvein the afternoon," she continued, refusing to acknowledge that Riley wasn't interested. There weren't many ways to get Riley to interact with others in conversation unless you got her into a speech about how much she hated something or if she was talking about anime. Jessica could pay better attention when it was just regular teen whining.

"Yeah."

"Anyway," Jessica said, realizing that Riley wasn't going to cooperate, "So what did you think of the history test?"

"I did good I think, but I didn't study for it," she said. Even bragging wasn't fun anymore. Riley's best subject was history as long as she actually read the chapters.

"Hm, lucky," Jessica muttered. Apparently she failed it. She started to rattle on about how she hated school, and history, and tests, but Riley pretty much just ignored her. As they walked, Riley's miscolored eyes were drawn to one of her friends. Danielle was standing a few yards away and had already noticed her.

'_SOS!'_, Riley mouthed to her. Danielle looked pityingly at her friend, but went back to the conversation she was having before. In return, she got a deathly glare from Riley. She was rather famous for those, mainly because she could hold it for twenty minutes when she felt like it. But Jessica didn't give her opportunity to. She'd apparently spotted the other two people who wouldn't cease to bother her. Riley inwardly groaned, but didn't give the effort to hide how annoyed she was as Jess dragged her away.

"Hi Riku! Hi Nico!" Jessica spouted happily as Riley was pulled over.

"Hi Jessica! What's up?" Riku asked.

"Hey," was all the hyperactiveteen managed to get out of Nico. Surprisingly Riley sort of liked Nico, when she was in an honest conversation withhim that didn't seem so forced like with the other two most of the time. Riku was alright too. He was smart and kind, but the relationship that should'veexisted between Jessica and him was so obvious even to Riley that she literally almost gagged whenever they were around each other. Another thing that was better withNico than with the others was that he at least had the decency to look like he really didn't want to be there. Although he never said it outright, he made it obvious that Riley's suspicions were true that they were following her. Whenever she looked at him, and he happened to be watching her, he might as well have had "I haveto do this. It's important. I don't want to, but I'd appreciate it if you'd refrain from making my job harder than it has to be," written across his forehead with a bright red marker. Riley appreciated honesty a lot more than genuine awkwardness that would've existed if she wasn't sure if what she'd suspected was true.

Jessica ignored the half-hearted greeting from Nico as expected and started talking to Riku. In some way, it made sense. Rikuwas senior to her only by a year instead of two like the Riley and Nico. (Oh and she was obsessed withhim. That too.) With both Jessica and Riku distracted, Riley was hoping she could get away from them, but the glare from Nico terminated the slim hope completely.

_Why does he choose now to actually put in some effort,_ Riley thought with despair to herself. She'd tried to get away from them before. Nico had simply alerted Jessica, who'd run after her and made an excuse to bring her back. Then she'd made an effort to actually keep Riley in the conversation which was much worse. Knowing when she had been beaten, Riley sighed and walked over to the wall that the three stood around and plopped onto the concrete floor.

_Ugh, why couldn't they conspire somewhere on the grass! They could've at least had the courtesy of letting me ignore them while sitting comfortably! _Riley thought bitterly. Flipping her sketchbook open for what must've been the fiftieth time that day (she didn't do most of the homework, so when the class graded it she was drawing) Riley began scratching in the first traces of a fight scene. After a couple of minutes of scraping her pencil along the page, Nico sat down beside her.

"Not participating in the ever-so-interesting conversation?" Riley asked.

"You expect me to?" Nico answered with a smirk.

She smiled. "If you replace the word expect with the word hoped."

"Sorry."

"Liar." Nico laughed. _See?_ she asked herself, _Earnest conversation. Why can't the other two be that way?_ The subject was dropped and Riley continued to draw as Nico watched with the hopes that she didn't notice. Too bad for him.

"Do you mind not doing that?" Riley said in annoyance, looking up from her rough sketch.

"Doing what?" the accused sixteen year old asked, taken aback.

"Breathing down my neck while I draw."

"I was not!"

"Yeah you were! Don't watch me while I draw."

"What's so bad about watching you?"

"It just… bugs me okay!"

"How can someone wa- "

"Jeeze why don't you two just go find a dark corner and start making out already?" Jessica said from in front of the two juniors, smirking.

Riley could feel her facial features begin to impersonate a tomato. Nico wasn't much better off.

"Nothing was happening Jess," Riley said as calmly as she could and closed her sketchbook. "And if you'd look at the evidence between you and Riku I think I have license to say the same only more so." She muttered the last part so no one could hear and stood.

"I'm gonna get my books for next period," she said and strode toward the lockers. Jessica was covering her mouth in shame of her own comment.

"Uh… Nico you know I didn't mean-" the sentence was cut off by Nico lifting himself off the ground and trudging away in the opposite direction of Riley. He didn't say anything, but his silence proved that he was angry enough. "Aw crap!" Jessica smacked her forehead. Riku simply shrugged.

~*~

Riley strode over to the lockers that sat along the outside wall of the school with her hands balled into tight fists. Anger was probably one of Riley's worst problems which she'd inherited from her father. Although they both refrained from lashing out at people, it still wasn't that hard to make them angry. After getting the lock off, Riley began yanking out her books from the metal casket. Her fingers clamped along the bound pages tightly and practically threw them onto the floor near her bag.

_Idiot Jessica,_ Riley thought in wrath, _we were in a reasonable argument. Just because I happen to like him better than the other two doesn't mean anything is going on._ To tell the truth, this had been happening for quite some time now. It had been two months since the three had transferred in February. Nico had shown up in class randomly one day (the teacher hardly had any warning of it) this was strange especially since it was such a small school and he already knew the other two people that came on the exact same day. Riley lived in a small town where hardly any crimes were committed. It wasn't very important or famous, so there was no reason for three people who already knew each other without being related would come there all at the same time. Since then, the situations only got stranger.

Like now for instance.

Riley was shoving the books from her last class back into her locker when she suddenly had a feeling that something or someone was watching her. Her spine shivered at the premonition. Only a select few times in her life had Riley had this feeling; most of which simply being a child freaking out for no particular reason (or so she thought). Twice before then had sudden suspicion been true. Once, when a strong wind had almost knocked Riley out of her favorite climbing tree, and the second, oddly enough, came before Riku, Jessica, and Nico were transferred into the school. It was like a sixthsense that would involuntarily turn on and off. As for now… well Riley was pretty sure that the hot, steamy breath that cascaded along her spine wasn't a cause of her imagination.

With a long gulp, Riley turned to find a… dog. A very large, pitch black, mastiff with teeth bigger than hairbrushes. It wasn't very comforting to the sixteen-year-old that they were being showed off because the dog had a very hungry look in its beady, pitch black eyes. Trying to swallow her absolute terror (and doing a poor job of it) Riley calmly looked around the yard in search of someone who could help her. Not a soul could be seen. So Riley resorted to the only thing she could think of: screaming like a banshee.

The freakish thing apparently didn't like the grating noise, so it tried to charge her in an attempt of ramming her body against the lockers. Riley, however, had somehow gained expert physical abilities in the past two seconds (despite her pathetic performances in P.E.) and sprinted to the side. Several sounds could be heard after that: a roar, creaks, crashes, thuds, booms and that horrid noise of ripping metal. All of which were the results of the hellish creature colliding into the lockers. After wrenching its gigantic head from the very large dent that it made, the dog turned to see Riley sprinting in the opposite direction. In rage it roared and Riley turned around for a split second before crashing into something.

It was Nico. Riley stared at his dark eyes. They were glaring at the beastly creature. Without looking at her Nico said, "Get out of here. Go find Riku and Jess. Tell them to come." No arguments were made, and Riley sprinted off to find her annoying stalkers. When she was several yards away, Riley glanced back to witness Nico and the deformed mastiff pacing each-other in circles. Only then did Riley notice the long, onyx sword Nico's fingers were clasped around.

Not once did it cross her mind to wonder where the hell he got it.

Still running, Riley found Jessica and Riku standing by the wall where she'd left them. She stopped and bent over panting. The two stared at her in worry, afraid that they knew what was going on. Unfortunately they found that they did.

"Lockers… big dog… Nico… sword… help…" Riley sputtered out through her panting.

Not even bothering to wait, the two began to run faster that Riley knew possible to the lockers. A second later, Riley's heart stopped pounding like the drums at a heavy metal concert. Looking around, she noticed that all of her fellow students were gone. Something was probably going on, like a fight or a dance competition. (It's odd, but it has happened before. It was so ridiculous that everyone was watching.) Whatever the reason was, there was absolutely no one there. Still it wouldn't take long for the bell to ring, and then the high-schoolers and middle-schoolers would haveto get their bags. Just for reference, they normally left their backpacks and books by the lockers. By the lockers with the freaky monster hanging around.

Riley looked back in the direction that Riku and Jess had just run, and made a quick decision. Then she ran after them. It took a minute, but Riley came upon the three still attacking the massive beast. Apparently they weren't very good at fighting it despite the fact that they had three on their side and only one on the other.

Three wasn't doing so well, but maybe four could make a difference. Riley thought for a moment. She examined the yard and laid her eyes on the shed that served as the school's storehouse. An idea formed in her creative teenage mind. Quickly, she sped off towards the wood and metal building. Fourteen years at the same school was finally paying off, for Riley knew that there was a ladder to the top of the huge shack just in case someone kicked a ball up there. With great effort, Riley made her way through the discarded playing objects that had rusted over the years without use. She never did understand why they couldn't fit them into the shed, but what can you do? The ladder was sitting in a corner (the shed was against the gate that blocked the kids off from running from the school) and looked particularly painful given that it was old and made of wood that had begun to chip, but Riley swallowed her fear of splinters and scaled it to the roof of the shed.

From twelvefeet off the ground, Riley could see the fight perfectly. This time, she noticed both Riku's and Jessica's weapons. Riku had a huge scythe and Jess was holding a pistol in her hand. _I don't think this day can get any stranger,_ Riley thought but pushed it aside and put her simple plan into action.

"_**Hey!**_" she shouted to the brutish dog and it turned its massive head to her, "_**Hey Fuzz-face you looking for something?!**_" It was a horrible insult but nonetheless it was enough to piss the monster off. As Riley predicted, it bounded in her direction and began its attempts in climbing the shack. The impact of its paws on the building almost caused Riley to fall from her position. Thankfully, she didn't.

Looking from the dog to her three classmates, Riley gave them a look that clearly said **'Hurry up.'**Riku, bless his heart, was the only one to get the message and started sprinting towards the animal. Nico and Jessica exchanged looks before Riley's intentions dawned on them, and they ran after Riku. Riley couldn't even count how many times she'd thanked whoever gave Riku his speed, because it took about fifteen seconds before he'd reached the shack and raised his scythe against the beastly canine. Well… Riley had second thoughts about it being a dog, because apparently it had the worst sense of smell ever. By the time the thing started to turn around, Rikuspun and slashed the beast in two with his scythe.

Then it disintegrated into dust… okaaay.

Riku stood there for a second, arm mid swing. Finally he lowered his weapon and smiled at Riley. "Thanks for the help," he said. "It's been a while since we last fought so we were a little more reckless than we should've been."

'_Last fought'? They do this on a regular basis? _Riley stared at Riku as he patted the dust off his navy short sleeved shirt. Nico and Jessica finally reached the building and looked back and forth between Riley and Riku.

Nico sighed and looked up at Riley, who still had bewilderment inscribed across her face. "Thanks for the help Riley, I'm not sure how we can pay you back for that."

"An explanation would be nice," Riley suddenly said.

The look on Nico's face was clearly regret. He had a smile on but it was the kind that said 'sorry'. Jessica was shifting her wait from foot to foot and looking in the opposite direction with her hand rubbing her arm. Riku was apparently finding the ants that were crawling along the floor quite interesting.

"Look," Riley sighed, "today's been a living hell for me, and as far as I see it, I've just saved you're lives. A little lecture on what the hell's going on is the least you could do. Besides, that dent in the lockers isn't going away any time soon. So if you want my help in explaining how that got there without mentioning the gigantic dog, you'll have to tell me what's happening. Don't think for a moment that I don't know that you guys and that dog are somehow connected. I might not have the best grades in the world, but I'm not an idiot by anyone's standards."

"I know," Nico said, "it's just that if we do explain, chances are that you won't believe us."

"After just seeing a dog three times larger than I am, I'm about ready to believe anything. So you might as well tell me now before the excitement goes away and I regain what little bit of logic I normally have in my head."

A few seconds went by before Nico sighed and looked as if he was about to givein, but that's when the bell rang. The three strange high-schoolers looked over to the field. They could see the students making their way towards the lockers.

"Dammit!" Nico cursed. "Has Chiron taught either of you how to manipulate the mist yet?" he asked Riku and Jess. They shook their heads.

"Mist?" Riley cocked an eyebrow.

"We'll tell you later," Nico said, turning back to Riley, who was still on the roof of the storehouse. "As for now, we need to get out of here."

"You're ditching?"

"You are too."

"What?!" Riley had never ditched school a day in her life. She hadn't planned on it either for any other day besides Senior Ditch Day when nobody cared. (I'm not sure if many other people do this, but that's the last day of high school where there technically still is school but there's never anything to do, so nobody goes.)

"Unless, you have an explanation for the … six screwed up lockers and scarred concrete, I suggest you climb down that, and start climbing the fence," Nico told her. Riku and Jess had begun scaling the chain link barrier as soon as Nico confirmed that they were ditching.

"But where are we going?" Riley asked desperately.

"To your house," was the simple answer. "We'll explain it to you there. Or better, your parents could tell you." Nico almost flinched at Riley's miscolored glare.

"What do my parents have to do with this?" she asked, her voice sounding like it was shrouded in darkness.

There was that smile again. The one that looked as if it was saying 'sorry'. Riley had a horrible thought in her mind, but she pushed it aside.

"Fine," she agreed, and made her way towards the ladder. The students were almost to the lockers, and Riley really wanted some answers. That and Nico had the sort of expression that said that if she wouldn't ditch on her own, he'd drag her with them. She had no choice.

"Hurry up!" Riley could hear Jess urging them from the other side of the short fence. Whatever kept people from ditching school on a normal basis by doing what they were now, Riley would never know. Nico and Riley climbed over the six foot tall gate and leapt onto the ground on the other side.

"I just realized how bad it would look once they realize that all four of us left at the same time," Riley thought out loud.

"You care?" Nico asked.

"I wasn't referring to my friends," she told him, already knowing how Nico took her comment, "I'm talking about the teachers. They'll know something's going on."

"I'll ask Chiron to do something about it," the Italian sixteen year old told her.

Riley thought that she recognized the name, but let it go. She'll get her answers when they reached her house. "Whose car are we taking?"

"I don't have a car," Nico told her. "I have a bike."

"Riku and I carpool with our classmates every morning," Jessica said.

"Guess I'll be driving you two then," Riley sighed. "Nico you follow us to my house K?"

Nico nodded, and with that they all ran off to the school's parking lot. It took some doing, but they all made it by the cameras that were set up around the school. Riley wasn't that worried about it in the first place, since no one really watches anyway, but Nico and the rest weren't having any of it. So they figured out a way to sneak past them.

As quickly as possible they fled from the education building in their respective vehicles, Riley in her deep blue Lexus with Jessica and Riku, and Nico on his sleek, silver and black Harley. It took around fifteen minutes of maneuvering through traffic to reach Riley's home. Surprisingly, Rikuand Jess said nothing the entire time. Still throughout the course of the drive she was playing hard rock music just to drown out the roar of Nico's impressive but irritating bike. She was also trying to guess what her parents would haveto do with the giant dog that tried to dismember her in just the past hour. After to what Riley considered to be too long, they finally reached her home.

After a minute of fumbling withthe lock, Riley swung the wooden door open. "Mom!" she called, "I'm home!" With no difference in her mood, the teenage girl strode into the living room which was to the right of the front door. Jessica followed her with her head hung and Riku with Nico deliberately trudged onto the tile floor and refused to go anywhere near the carpeted living room. They could all hear thumping and rushing up the stairs of the two story building and assumed it was Riley's mom. Riley herself simply sat on the dark leather couch and waited for her mother. She seemed to be angry. Needless to say, her three schoolmates were feeling pretty awkward.

Finally, a middle aged woman with blondhair and slightly overweight figure poked her head over the white banister. She gavea hard questioning look at her daughter but then saw her three guests. Slight realization could be seen through her blue-grey eyes. Silently, she descended the stairs and walked into the large room withher daughter. Still, nothing was said. A cat jumped up on the couch next to Riley and looked at the three strangers with bright green eyes. Riley attempted to pet her but the mutt of a feline leapt at her hand and ran from the room.

"Stupid cat," they heard her mutter.

If they didn't know the context of the situation, Riku, Nico and Jessica would've assumed that they were there in preparation to going to a movie or something. Too bad though.

"I'll go call your dad," the forty-something-year-old said and walked into the kitchen. Riley still sat there and didn't say a word.

"Um…" Jessica finally stabbed the silence at its heart. "Can we… I don't know… do something?" she asked.

"There's a cabinet sort of thing over there," Riley said jabbing behind her with her thumb. "It has DVD's in it if you want. Or you could go find the dog. He's probably outside. Or if you're hungry, help yourself to food in the kitchen."

"Okay, thanks," the blond freshmen said awkwardly. Apparently she liked the idea of finding the dog better, for she walked towards the other end of the living room where there was a sliding glass door to a backyard.

"Um…" Riku mumbled, "I'll go with her." Riley didn't say anything. The door screeched as it was opened then slid closed, leaving Nico and Riley. The silence was so prominent that they could hear the ticking of a clock in the upstairs hall.

"You're not going to play with the dog?" Riley finally asked, giving her classmate a piercing stare.

Nico shifted but answered withpathetic humor, "I'm not one for hanging out with Riku and Jessica by myself. It's painful." Riley quirked her lips in a half smile, but it soon disappeared.

"You can sit down you know," she told him for he was still standing right next to the door on the tile.

"I prefer to stand."

Riley shrugged. "Suit yourself."

They sort of stayed like that until they heard the front door opening. Nico moved out of the way and onto the carpet, finally. Riley looked away from the TV which she'd turned on to see who it was. "Hey Dad," she said.

Riley's father had dark brown hair and blue eyes. His face was slightly wrinkled with age, but at the corners of his eyes were crows' feet. Apparently he smiled a lot. Much unlike now. Now, he stared at Nico with contempt. He knew what was going on, and he dreaded it.

_He's probably the normal parent,_ Nico thought. He nodded to the middle aged man and held out his hand for him to shake. It was left hanging in the air for a minute before Nico realized that the man had no intention of having any contact with him if he could help it.

"Uh…" Nico mumbled awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck, "I'll go get Riku and Jess." He walked so fast to the backyard door; he might as well have ran.

Riley was left alone with her father. They simply stared at each other. "Mom's upstairs," Riley finally said. In a way, she wanted to put off the truth as long as she possibly could. Seeing that his daughter wasn't going to say anything else, the father sighed and made his way up the stairs to get his wife.

Five minutes later they were all sitting in the living room. Riley sat in between her parents on the couch, Riku chose a leather chair to the left of the couch, Jessica sat on a flower patterned brown chair on the other side of Riku, and Nico pulled up a large Beanbag that he could hardly keep from laying on. Nico felt particularly awkward since the father of the family could clearly see him unlike his so-called 'friends'. No one said anything for a while. They couldn't find a place to start. Finally, Riku, being the most mature of the group, said "Well I guess by the expressions on your faces, you both know why we're here."

"Yes," Riley's father (who she told them was named Austin Carter) replied. "You're here to take Riley to that camp all the way in New York." The sentence felt like a gigantic boulder landing on Riley's head. _This is the first __I've__ heard of any camp,_ she thought.

Riku nodded and continued. "A satyr who was sent a little farther from here felt the presence of a powerful half blood while he was on his way back to camp with a child of Demeter. He couldn't come find out who it was himself, so Mr. D sent us to get him to… uh… stop pestering him." Riley's jaw dropped open. _WHY IN ALL OF HELL ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT GREEK MYTHS NOW?!!!_ "Anyway, we sort of… kept an eye on the schools around here for about a month before we felt a powerful presence. One that none of us had ever felt from a demigod before. It came from Riley's school. So we all applied and got in without much difficulty. Nico, being in Riley's class, was the first to confirm that the aura came from her."

"What in hell's entire name are you people talking about?!!" Riley suddenly shouted.

"Riley," Nico finally spoke, "I've watched you for two months now." (Somehow that didn't seem very comforting to Riley.) "I've noticed that you like reading about myths and legends and stuff a lot. Have you ever noticed and character traits you might have that resemble any of those gods?"

"NO!"

"Well… you're one of them," Nico said simply. Riley's jaw was set to 'catching flies mode' again.

"Not exactly one of them per say," Riku finally gained control of the conversation again. "But one of them is a parent of yours." That didn't do anything to help Riley's expression. Riku sighed. "Let me try again. We, that is, Jessica, Nico and I, have deities for parents. I'm sure, since you apparently know much about them, you can guess which ones."

"But there are hundreds of different mythologies!" Riley complained.

"If you limit it to the Greek gods," Riku smiled.

Riley looked at the three of them for a moment. There was no way to tell from looks so she thought of their personalities. Riku was easiest. "Athena?" she said, pointing at Riku. He nodded withthe smile still on his face. Next she tried Jessica. Not many of the gods (she imagined) were as hyperactive as Jessica. At first she guessed Aphrodite but then thought better of it. Jess never flirted withany of the guys. Instead, they flirted with her just from how naturally fun she was to be around. "Hermes?" Jess smirked and bobbed her head to say yes. Now it was Nico's turn. He was… a little difficult. His personality seemed to switch sometimes. Usually he was quiet and kind of cold, but when he talked to her, he was kind and smiled a lot.

"I can't figure it out," she finally said.

Nico raised an eyebrow and Jessica blurted "But it's so obvious!"

"Sorry but I can't guess," Riley shrugged

A smile spread across Nico's features. "My dad's Hades," he said. Riley was sure that she'd need surgery on her jaw soon if more surprises came.

"But," she finally said, "what does this have to do with me and my… 'aura'?"

"Everything" Riku answered. "Now that we've told you that our parents are gods, I guess that you've accepted them as real." _Oh… I guess this guy's taken a speech class cause he made me believe in myths first before accepting that they're these guys' parents_, Riley thought in admiration. "And since you're so familiar with them, you know what they most liked to do right?" A grimace and a nod were the answers to his question. "So people like us pop up all the time around the world," he continued, "Naturally they need a place to stay. So satyrs are sent out to find these people and bring them to our camp that we mentioned. Camp Half blood it's called. Oh, and in case you haven't figured it out, 'halfblood' is the term that identifies us as half human, half god." Riley's head was spinning at this point, so when Rikufinally stopped talking, she couldn't even come up with a decent question.

"Why…" she finally started, "Why do half bloods need a place to stay? Can't their normal parents take care of them? I mean… I know some wouldn't want a freakish mutt of a human being for a child, but why can't those that have accepting parents stay with them?"

"You just found out why about an hour ago," Nico said.

"What? So you're all attacked by giant dogs? What sense does that make?"

"The dog that attacked you is called a Hellhound," Nico answered, "and no, we're not attacked by them, well, not all of us anyway, but we're destined to be attacked by monsters."

This was sounding more and more ridiculous to Riley. "When did this turn in to a crappy horror film?"

Nico sighed again. "Not things like werewolves, The Boogie Man, and vampires… well… oh never mind. The things that attack us are Greek monsters."

"Things like the Minotaur and Medusa?" Riley inquired.

"Exactly."

"But didn't they die? I mean, Medusa had her head lopped off by Perseus, and the Minotaur was killed by Theseus wasn't he?"

"Yeah so?" Nico said. Riley just looked at him, confused beyond all reason.

Riku sighed. "Monsters don't have souls like we do," he told her, "they pretty much just rest for a while and then come back to the world for us heroes to kill again."

"So you're heroes now? Pick a title dude!" Riley groaned.

"All right, we demigods have to kill monsters that were said to be killed thousands of years before. One kid, a son of Poseidon, faced the Minotaur twice himself. Some monsters take longer to regenerate than others though. Like that same kid also fought Medusa and she still hasn't been seen again."

"Of course," Jessica said, thinking, "some monsters really don't come back. Like Medusa had two sisters didn't she?"

"Yeah, the Three Gorgons," Riley answered for her.

"Well Percy (the kid he mentioned) said the Medusa talked about her sister's dying, but not from being murdered."

"And with that, we come to how the gods still exist," Rikusaid. "You see, all of this Greek stuff, came about with the existence of the West. A few years ago, the West was in serious danger from the number one enemy of the gods."

"Kronos," Riley confirmed. Riku nodded.

"You see, the West, is the key to the gods' lifeline. If the influence of the West, and the west in general dies, then the gods go with it. However if the influence of a god, or monster leaves the west, then they'll leave too. Like can you even remember the names of Medusa's sisters?" Riley had to admit she didn't know.

"Okay, but Dad mentioned something a while ago about the camp you're talking about being in New York. Why there? I mean, why wouldn't the camp be in Greece with the gods and everything?"

Riku laughed. "What makes you think that the gods are still there?"

"Huh?"

"You see this ties in to what I've been talking about. Mount Olympus isn't confined to only the actual Mount Olympus in Greece. It moves. The prominent country of the West used to be Greece am I correct? But later that changed didn't it? It went to Rome, and the gods moved with it. Later to other countries. I can't recall which ones in the exact order but I think you can figure out which one is the most powerful now."

"America?"

"Yes. So not only did the home of the gods move, Mount Olympus, but everything else came with it. Such as the Underworld," Riku looked at Nico who nodded. "The normal entrance to the Underworld is in California. It's always as for west as you can get."

"Where's Olympus?" Riley asked.

Jessica smirked. "You went on the US Historic Study Tour in the eighth grade right?" she asked. Riley nodded. "I assume you spent a while in New York too right?" The sixteen-year-old winced. To tell the truth she didn't like New York very much. It was too crowded. But she nodded. "Well then you obviously went to the Empire State Building then. If you go up to the guy at the desk on the ground floor and ask him to let you to go up to the 600th floor, he'll give you a key (once he believes that you're not joking with him anyway). You take the elevator to the 600th floor and you'll find yourself on Mount Olympus." There was no doubt in Riley's mind that she'll need that surgery on her jaw later.

"Okay, you know what?" Riley finally asked, "I don't even care anymore. Just tell me why that dog attacked me and I'll be fine."

"We've been trying to tell you," Nico sighed. "Monsters always come after us because they can smell our aura. I'm not sure how they do it, but apparently satyrs can too. Demigods can sometimes feel it with gods or _really_strong half bloods. So that's why we were sent to come get you. The satyr we mentioned first smelled your presence miles away from here. We even felt it when we got near the school. Needless to say it's a miracle that you were never found before now."

"So you think that I'm some ridiculously strong, superhero type of thing, and if I don't come with you, I'll be found by a bunch of scary beastly things and die," Riley stated.

"Sounds about right," Nico confirmed.

"Were you dropped on your head when you were little?"

"You were just accepting it a while ago!!" Nico yelled.

"Yeah, because it didn't involve one of my parents cheating on the other!" Riley screamed at the Italian boy. The two stood up and looked like they were seriously about to hurt each other, when Riley felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked back and found that it was her father's. With no exaggeration involved, Riley could've swore that she literally felt her heart sink. "You?"

Austin Carter sighed. "That was the night that I figured out that I wasn't good at holding my alcohol."

"So what?" Riley choked, barely keeping her tears in. "You got drunk and screwed some woman that you hardly knew over?"

The forty year old grimaced. "That sounds about right."

"So… so then," the girl fixed her gaze on who she thought was her mother. She sighed.

"No, Riley I'm not you blood mother," she said. "Your father… did what he did before he met me. It was only a few weeks after we were married when you appeared at our door. You were about two years old by then."

"So… who took care of me before that?"

"We don't know," her mother answered. "We took you to a hospital for them to take your DNA and find out whose child you were. The results were your father's and someone else's that couldn't be recognized."

Riley couldn't find the strength to speak. She could feel the sting of tears in her eyes. Nico noticed this and sighed. "Riley, we all had to go through the same thing. Not a single demigod can make it through their lives without some bumps in the road." The girl still said nothing. Instead, she spun on her heel and walked towards the stairs. No one attempted to stop her as she retreated to her room. They all knew that she needed to be alone.


	2. Nightmare

**Hey people, I realized that I have to put this up on the document itself only after posting the first chapter, and I'm too lazy to go and change the last one. So anyway, first of all I'd like to thank the two people who've commented, as well as those who favorited the story. Glad you like it. ^^ Oh, and I'd like to apologize for not having a very long chapter this time. I figured that maybe it would better to focus on what's about to happen more than the camp so you can guess as to who Riley's mom is. That, and I was exited to get the new chapter out. Seriously though, this is probably the fastest you'll get. I'm really** **slow. And... that's pretty much it. Hope you enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Percy Jackson, not only would I be a man, but I wouldn't be posting this on the internet, I'd be publishing it. That, and I'd also include the Japenese gods in the next series instead of the Egyptian ones. (Not that I have anything against them, I just happen to like Japenes mythology better.)**

* * *

Riley had no comprehension of how long she'd locked herself in her room. All she acknowledged about the time was that the sun had begun to set and the Linkin Park CD she'd put on repeat was replaying the songs for what seemed like the fifth time. Even so, the tears still spilled out hot and fresh. Her eyes were blurred and red with the lids around them puffing out like marshmallows. Swearing that something was pounding at her head from the inside with a hammer, Riley finally decided that she needed to get off of her bed. Without a doubt the three demigods were still waiting downstairs for her, but she didn't wish to see them yet. She felt disgusting and needed something to sooth her aching limbs and thoughts. Stepping out of her room for the first time in what must've been hours, Riley made her way towards the bathroom. She could hear soft talking from the lower floor as she walked across the hall.

Suddenly Riley heard them stop. She figured that they must've heard her open her door and thought she was coming down. Not having any concern for their expectations, Riley continued her venture for a shower. After turning the hot water to the temperature she liked, Riley must've spent a half hour in the soothing, steamy liquid. No, she didn't have much of a special connection to water besides the fact that her parents practically started her out swimming before she could even walk (they would stick her head underneath the faucet in the bathtub to get her used to the water) and she enjoyed it. Still, her head was cleared and she didn't fell as slimy as before.

A couple of revelations dawned on her and Riley concluded that she couldn't hide from this. She had to face the problem head on. Her father wasn't as pure as she'd thought. (That was what made her realize that she'd never asked, so it's not like he lied to her about that.) She had to protect herself now that she knew how much danger she was in, and to do that she'd have to go with Nico and the others to the camp that they'd mentioned. She was apparently very powerful (which seemed ridiculous to her since she was none too strong). None of this changed anything between her and Katrina Carter. Riley might've had a different mother, but Katrina would always be her mom.

With that, she pulled her clothes on and stepped out of the bathroom. She heard the voices downstairs diminish once again and took a breath in. _There's nothing to worry about,_ she told herself, _Just charge at the problem head on and find a way through it._ Riley was known for being easy going. Worrying wasn't something she liked to do very often.

Tromping down the stairs with heavy feet, Riley made her appearance to her friends (well… sort of friends) and family with dripping wet hair and ripped jeans. She was actually surprised to find that her little sister was home. Then she realized something else. Leila was only her half sister. There was no excuse for all of the stupid fights they had anymore. _Darn it,_ Riley thought. She looked long and hard at the twelve year old and noticed the red rimmed eyes that puffed out from her skull. Apparently her parents decided to tell Leila the truth.

"So," Riley asked breaking the silence, "what's gonna happen now?"

Her parents exchanged glances and turned back to her with saddened eyes. "You have to go to Camp Halfblood," Austin told her. Riley nodded. She expected as much.

"When do I leave, who's paying for the plane tickets, and are you three going to come with me on the plane to New York?" she asked her family.

"We'll have to leave as soon as possible," Nico told her. "We can call Chiron and ask him to pay for the plane… well… for you, Jess and Riku anyway."

"You're not coming with us to the camp?" Riley asked him.

"I'm going to camp, just not by air," her classmate answered with a nervous look at the floor.

"Why-" Riley was about to ask another question but Jessica placed a hand on her shoulder and whispered, "We'll tell you later." With hardly enough energy to stand, Riley resolved not to argue.

"All right, when should we leave?" the fifteen year old's blue tinted hair swished as she turned to Riku and Jessica.

Jessica shrugged and Riku looked to be thinking. "Like Nico said, the sooner the better," he thought out loud, "but you do need to get your stuff together, and Chiron will need to book the flight. Besides," Riku placed his hands in the pockets of his black leather jacket and shrugged, "you'll probably want some extra time with your family before we leave, so a week at most would probably be best."

Riley couldn't help but smile. Riku was by far the smartest guy she'd ever met. She was almost glad that he came along with Nico and Jess to stalk her. He smiled back.

"So who's gonna take the first watch?" Nico broke in.

"Wait what?" Riley looked back and forth from her parents to her schoolmates.

"I will," Jessica answered, raising her hand.

"Huh?"

"Alright then Riku and I will be going then. Riku you can take my bike and I'll just shadow travel back to the apartment."

"What're you talk-"

"Kay thanks."

"What's going on?!" Riley screamed.

"Oh yeah you weren't here when we talked about this," Nico realized out loud. "Well since none of you four have much experience fighting monsters, we've decided to take turns staying here and watching you."

"Oh… so everyday one of you will be crashing here to watch me?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"So it's like stalking only I actually know about it."

"Well… yeah… yeah that's pretty much it," Nico answered rubbing the back of his neck.

"Okay," Riley shrugged. "See you tomorrow." The girl waved and trudged back up the stairs to her room.

~*~

For the next week Riley stayed at home. Nico made an IM to Chiron telling him to book a plane to New York on the next Wednesday. Each day the three would spend the afternoon at Riley's to teach her more about the camp as well as the Greek mythology 'know-how'. Once on the day that Riku stayed over, Jessica and Nico brought over an entire bag of weapons which he explained to Riley were celestial bronze. He tried to teach her how to fight with a few of them, but Riley just didn't seem to have the ADHD that most halfbloods were marked for.

She was the strangest halfblood that any of them had ever come across. Not only could she read English better than most normal humans, but she was probably the weakest that existed. Riley beat herself up for it every time they tried to guess who her parent might be. That was another thing. None of the halfbloods could guess who could've been her parent. The fact that she was able to hide for over sixteen years was an amazing feat given how powerful she was, but that didn't excuse the fact that despite the agreement that all of the gods made, she was still unclaimed.

So they all concluded that somehow Riley's mother must've been immune to the agreement. Riku suggested that maybe Riley's mom wasn't Greek at all. This surprised both Nico and Jessica. The other mythologies were hardly discussed among the campers back in New York so they never really thought about the possibility of other gods and goddesses, much less one being Riley's parent. However, Riku thought it was an obvious possibility. Doubtless they all knew that the other mythological people were still around, but they never really dealt with them. Riley put an end to the thought of her being one of their children either though. She was well learned on the subject of mythology, and she pointed out she didn't have anyone else's characteristics either.

None of it made sense, so they all decided that it was best to leave the subject alone. Without any of them noticing, a week had passed, and it was time for Riley to leave. Trying not to ball her eyes out, Riley said goodbye to her parents who'd come to see her off and headed through the gate to the plane. Nico stayed at the apartment that he, Riku, and Jess had shared for the past few months to make sure that nothing was left behind. He said that he'd meet them at the camp when they got there since shadow travel was much faster.

It was a nice plane and the three teenagers all sat in the same row together. Still, it didn't make much of a difference. Riley was tired since they left for the airport at about three in the morning and slept for the whole ride. The plane wouldn't be landing until they reached Manhattan, so Riley's sleep was uninterrupted. But this was no ordinary sleep for her. You see, Riley doesn't get scared very easily unless she hears a ghost story and even then, the fear doesn't affect her until she goes to sleep. And yet, Riley had only experienced around three nightmares that she could recall.

It was fairly obvious that she didn't enjoy her sleep.

Riley's dream started out simple. She was standing on the beach with her feet being washed over by the salt water, her shoes she'd assumed were discarded somewhere close in the sand. However, as normal as that seemed, Riley had the strangest sense that something was wrong. Not only was she actually wearing a dress in her dream (which only happened once in a Blue Moon), but she was also … manipulating the water. At first she guessed that she was simply manipulating her dream, she'd done that before. Then to make sure of her assumption, she tried to turn the waves a different way, that was when the trouble started.

The bright, clear blue sky that shrouded the dream in a happy sort of air swiftly distorted itself into a dark, depressing grey. Beneath her barren feet, Riley could feel the earth shaking. Not only that but the sounds of cracking and thrashing reached her ears. Looking up, Riley saw that the ocean waves that had been perfectly calm a second before were giving the sandy earth quite a beating. Another horrible shake sent Riley to her knees. In her terror, the halfblood couldn't even remember how to scream. For some reason Riley's eyes were fixed upon the floor a few inches to her right, as if she _knew_ something was about to happen to it. Sure enough, the earthquakes that had been threatening to make Riley fall face-first against the ground had been strong enough to cause the sand to split apart.

In terror, Riley watched as the sand fell in the form of waterfalls into the crevasse. She didn't truly wish to see what lied at the bottom of it, but compelled by curiosity, Riley stood, took a step forward and saw… nothing. It was completely dark. Without even noticing it, the girl automatically wished for some light. Her mistake caused terrifyingly tall tongues of flame to rise up from the bottomless abyss. Riley covered her eyes with her arms and took a step back. Suddenly she stumbled backward, but caught herself. Glancing behind her, Riley saw that the earth that was once laid out before her had crumbled like a cookie that was too dry into the darkness. Where Riley stood, was the last piece of solid soil that could be seen for miles.

The ocean was still raging to Riley's left, and the waves were threatening to come close enough to knock her into the dark chasm. Fire that was meant to give Riley a means to see into the dark had now crawled along the edge of the earthen pillar which the frightened-beyond-words girl stood, leaving only one space bereft of conflagration. Something in Riley compelled her to still try and see what was at the bottom of the depression. Hesitantly, Riley took a step forward and peeked over the edge of her supporting colonnade. For some reason, the wind decided that its turn to harass Riley had come. Her blue tinted hair whipped at her face and her body was thrust forward buy the gale that had picked up.

In full force, Riley got a good look at what was at the bottom of the threateningly high chasm. The bottom was made of what looked to be solid lava rock. All of it black and smooth save for one spot. What must've been miles down was a large, dark pit. It was perfectly circular and somehow more threatening than the gigantic abyss that seemed to have swallowed up Riley's entire world. Her eyes wide, Riley tried to get as far away from the edge as she could, and as far from that pit.

That was when she heard the voice.

It was loud, deep and commanding. Riley automatically shivered. It was also laughing.

"Well dear sister, look at all the trouble you've managed to cause," it said, the laugh mixed in with the words. "Come now, don't be afraid of me. Come down. I'm the only one that can teach you how to harness your powers. If you don't this is what would happen." Riley could've sworn that someone had just scraped her spine with a knife. Still, no matter how much she wished to, Riley couldn't move.

Finally, the wind gave one final push and sent the girl over the edge of her only salvation. Riley plummeted straight towards the pit. In her fear, Riley found her voice. She began screaming.

"Riley!" someone shouted.

Looking up, the halfblood saw a familiar face staring at her. It was a boy. A boy with eyes the color of dark chocolate. Those eyes looked to be more afraid than Riley felt. It was Nico. He desperately held a hand out to her. Ignoring the fact that Riley must've already fallen hundreds of yards, she reached her arm towards Nico and grasped his outstretched hand. Nico smiled brightly. Tears pooled in the miscolored eyes of the female teenager as she realized that Nico was going to get her out of there.

Dust interrupted Riley's joyful crying, and she looked up. The pillar that Nico had half of his body hanging over was shuddering like crazy. "Another earthquake!" Riley gasped. Nico looked at her with pain-stricken eyes, and Riley realized what he was about to do.

"No," she whispered. Nico shut his eyes tightly, tears squeezing from underneath the lids. "No!" Riley shouted. "No Nico don't let go of me!"

She stared up at her friend, but realized that Nico was no longer Nico. His olive skin somehow distorted itself from the normal human form that Riley was used to seeing him as. Riley blinked a couple of times and the darkness that took over her dream earlier on disappeared. Light blazed into Riley's eyes as she opened them for the first time in what must've been hours. She rubbed her head and looked up to find herself still on the plane bound for New York. Jessica was on her left, looking annoyed.

"Jeeze what does it take just to wake you up?!" she huffed.

"An earthquake," Riley answered, realizing that the final tremors in her dream must've been Jess shaking.

"I guess so," the blonde freshman agreed. "Come on, we're in New York, we've gotta go."

"Okay, okay, I'm coming," she sighed and rubbed her temples.

"Well hurry up, Riku's already off the plane!"

"Seriously?" Riley asked, not really caring.

"Yeah! We landed like, ten minutes ago!"

"Fine, fine!" the sixteen-year old stood from the seat and grabbed her carryon.

* * *

**Can you guess who her mom is yet? Feel from to comment or not on it, but I'd like to see your guesses... and or correct answers. Actually I think I completely gave it away if you know Greek mythology well enough.**

**Alright that's it for the second chapter. Don't run away while I work on the third, because as I said, I'm painfully slow!**


	3. Camp Halfblood

Together, Riley and Jess got off the plane. They found Riku waiting for them at baggage claim with all three of their suitcases sitting there at his side. Not waiting a second, they all pulled their rolling packages out the door of the airport. Jessica, who looked ecstatic to be back home, took the liberty of getting a taxi for them.

After Jess had nabbed a somewhat nicer one than normal, the three threw their bags in the back and got in the car. Jessica and Riku were the only ones to talk to each other for the long drive up Long Island. Riley was too busy mulling over her dream. It was so odd because normally Riley couldn't even remember her dreams, but this one seemed so… real.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Riley could recall Nico mentioning once that now that she knew she was a halfblood, she'd probably have more dreams than before. She didn't really take into account that Nico hesitated before he said the word 'dreams'. Now she figured that the 'dreams' were probably mostly going to be nightmares. He'd said that halfblood dreams normally meant something. It could be about the past, future, present, or overall just symbolic. He'd used the example of Percy Jackson. An older halfblood who all three couldn't stop mentioning. Apparently he'd saved the world or something.

However, despite all the glory Percy had received from that, he apparently still got almost more nightmares than anyone they'd ever met. Nico was a good friend of his so therefore Percy would sometimes confide in him about his dreams. Riley guessed that if a college kid had to ask a junior in high school for help, he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. That made her wonder. Jess was apparently there during the war that had taken place several years before, and she herself said that it was easy to tell that Percy by far was neither one of the smartest nor strongest halfbloods out there. (Until he took a swim in the river Styx. Riley didn't even need an explanation of what that meant. Achilles was one of her favorite heroes.)

So what exactly did that make her?

That dream… it was so horrid to Riley, but she knew it must've been a clue. She had a strong feeling about what the pit was, and a cold shiver crept along her spine when she thought about it. After hearing a very poor explanation of the war, Riley knew that it was probably best not to tell the others about the imagined scenes… or at least not yet.

Since she was so immersed in her thoughts, Riley hardly noticed it when the car came to a solid stop. Hearing the door open, the girl's blue and brown eyes jerked up and looked out the window. Outside laid green hills that were blanketed with strawberry fields. Riley couldn't help but whistle. The place was beautiful. Smiling, Riley stepped out the taxi and pulled her bags out. Riku was paying the driver, and Jess was impatiently waiting for her companions to hurry up. A minute or so later, the three watched as the driver sped back down the road to Manhattan.

"Come on let's go!" Jessica shouted and picked up her backpack from the asphalt floor.

"So," Riley started, "where exactly is this camp of yours?"

"It's about another mile from here," Riku told her.

"What?" the sixteen-year-old shouted. "Why did you make him drop us off here then?"

Jessica laughed and Riku smiled. "You'll see."

Riley did, in fact, see. See the forty foot long dragon that curled itself around the base of a tall pine tree. It was a magnificent beast with crimson scales, and Riley was so terrified of it that she took a step back. The dragon opened one of its eyes and gave a cold stare to Riley. She shivered under the golden gaze. Jess, however, did not share Riley's fear and bounced right up to the scaly creature to stroke its head.

"Hey Peleus," she said with a warmth that Riley had never seen before. Apparently Jessica had a liking towards strange animals… when they were not trying to kill you. Riku too, showed no hesitation in walking right next to the monster. However, he simply waved to it and continued walking. Soon, Jessica began following, waving at Riley to come with them.

"He won't hurt you," she reassured. "He's only there to guard the fleece and the border. If you're not a monster, he'll leave you alone."

"Fleece?" Riley muttered and looked at the tree again, noticing that upon one of the branches a golden cloth was hung. In wonder, Riley took a step toward the dragon to inspect the fleece closer. It was a gorgeous thing to look at, but Riley thought to herself that she would never want to incorporate it into her clothes. The thing was made of pure metal and looked to weigh more than she did. Finally taking notice of its guardian, Riley backed away from the glaring Peleus. He obviously didn't like how she was looking at the fleece. Nervously, Riley walked around the dragon and began catching up with her friends.

After a short expanse of time, the three had run into Nico. He was apparently talking to a friend who looked to be a little older than him, when he spotted Riku, Jess, and Riley. With a smile he waved them over and they obliged. "What took you guys so long?" he asked once they were closer.

"Riley fell asleep on the plane and wouldn't wake up," Jess answered ruthlessly. Riley refused to reply to the comment and instead, settled with glaring at the younger girl. Nico laughed. The girl he was talking with raised an eyebrow. He didn't normally act the way he did now.

"Anyway, Riley, let me introduce you to Rachel, the camp oracle," he said, gesturing to the girl. Riley lifted an eyebrow. Rachel had the reddest hair she'd ever seen!

"Hi!" the oracle said enthusiastically, and held out a hand for Riley to shake. Not taking a dislike to her, Riley took it and smiled.

"Oracle huh?" she asked. "So you tell the future?"

"Only sometimes," Rachel shrugged. "You'd appreciate it too. Things get a little weird when I start spouting off prophesies."

"So where's our stuff Nico?" Jess interrupted.

"I put it with your cabins," he answered.

"Wait… did you lock any of mine?" the freshman inquired nervously.

"Uh… no," Nico looked to be holding in a smirk as Jessica gasped and started running.

"_I hate you Nico!_" she screamed as she ran in the direction of a ring of cabins.

"That's for messing with the shower!" he shouted after her, still smiling.

"Um… okay," Riley muttered, and shook her head. "So where am I gonna go?" The three weren't exactly the best at explaining things, so Riley never figured out where she was going to stay until they found out who her real parent was. She _did_ know about the cabin system thing as well as the tables at the dining pavilion. However, that was exactly why she was confused.

"You'll have to stay in the Hermes cabin until we find out who your mom is," Riku answered, and picked up his suitcase again. "I'm gonna go put my stuff in my own cabin. I'll see you guys later!" And with that, he left.

There were a few moments of awkward silence before Riley attempted to fix it, "Uh… you guys mind showing me it so I can put my stuff down?"

"Sure!" Rachel answered happily. "Then we'll show you around!"

"What do you mean 'we'?" Nico interjected.

"What do you hate your friend enough to leave her with people she doesn't even know? And with the Hermes cabin no less!" Rachel inquired with a devious smile. Riley raised an eyebrow in question. _What's she getting at?_ she thought.

"Wha-? N-no!" Nico answered, flustered.

"Good!" the bouncy oracle exclaimed. "Let's go!" Snatching Riley's hand, Rachel pulled her to the cabins with Nico following dejectedly behind.

Needless to say, Riley was amazed by everything. She'd left her luggage in the Hermes cabin (under magical lock and key, courtesy of jess owning a lockable trunk- and her siblings being professional lock pickers-) before being shown around. Nico suggested showing her the beach first after the cabins, and Rachel agreed. Riley loved it. Although she knew that she was looking at an entirely different ocean, she couldn't help but feel a little at home with the sun, sand and waves that lay before her. Next, they guided her to the volleyball pit, Rachel insisting that Riley would love it. The chuckling, courtesy of Nico, earned a very impressive glare from Riley. There was no way she would subject herself to the tortures of volleyball of her own free will. Although she was not the worst at it, since her underhand serving was vaguely impressive, Riley loathed the feeling of failure whenever she missed the ball.

When Rachel had finally given up on attempting convincing the junior to play, she pulled her towards the training area. There, Riley's jaw looked like it would have broken away from the rest of her skull had it dropped any further.

"Did I accidentally sign myself up for a torture facility?" she asked nervously.

"Pretty much," Nico answered with a devious smirk.

"Is that lava?"

"Uh," Rachel stuttered and snatched Riley's arm, "let's go check out the arena shall we?" Nico started to laugh. Riley figured out then that the expressions of new campers must be a good source of entertainment.

_I probably look like a total noob,_ Riley thought to herself as she was lead to what looked to be a recreation of the Roman Coliseum. However, her mind was soon lost to amazement at the architecture.

"How did you guys build this?" she asked as she was pulled through the gate.

"We didn't," Nico explained, "Camp Halfblood is like Olympus and the Underworld. It moves with the heart of western civilization."

"Oh," Riley muttered. She was a tad distracted however and hardly heard Nico's explanation. You see, one of Riley's passions was action and violence, and at the moment, down in the center of the arena, were two people dueling like their lives depended on it.

Nico looked down and smiled. "Hey Travis! Hey Conner!" he shouted and jogged down the steps. "I didn't know you were here!"

The two warriors lowered their swords and looked up at Nico. Riley couldn't quite see their faces due to the fact that they wore helmets (which must've been killing them since it was at least eighty degrees at the time), but judging from the identical height and build, the two must have been brothers.

"Hey Nico!" one of them greeted, "When did you get back?"

"About an hour ago. When did you get here?" Nico answered, finally arriving down in the center.

"A few days ago. We're on vacation at the moment," the opposite told him.

"Oh hey, meet the new girl," Nico said and turned to Riley and Rachel, who still stood up by the doorway. He waved them down and Riley cocked an eyebrow. Rachel, however, held no hesitation in walking down the steps with a wave. The 'new girl' followed.

"Hey!" the boy one the left said and took off his helmet before holding out a hand to Riley. "I'm Travis." With a smile, Riley shook the hand.

"I'm Connor," said the other, who also took off his helmet and held out his own hand. Riley returned it. She was satisfied in her correct assumption that they were brothers, in fact, they must've been twins. For the two both had messy copper brown hair, sharp features, brown eyes, and mischievous smiles. Both of them looked to be at least twenty-two. (Of course they were not twins, but Riley did not know that yet.) They reminded her very much of Jessica.

"Riley, meet the Stoll brothers," Rachel exclaimed and held out an arm like she was the chick from Jeopardy.

"They're some of the camp seniors. They've been here for about forever until they left for college," Nico explained.

"You're Jessica's brothers aren't you?" Riley asked. They looked at each other and laughed.

"Yeah," Conner answered, scratching the back of his neck, "good guess."

"Whose kid are you?" Travis asked. She grew silent. Nico did not look too comfortable either.

"What is it?" Rachel asked. Apparently she had not been explained of Riley's situation.

"We… don't know… who her mom is," Nico answered for his friend. Riley shot him a grateful smile.

"But… wait a minute, how old are you?" Connor asked.

"She's sixteen," he answered again, "we don't get it either."

"Well…" Rachel muttered, "At least you know it's her mom."

"Um… weren't you guys gonna show me the Big House?" Riley asked, trying to find an excuse to end the extremely awkward conversation.

"Oh yeah," the redheaded, twenty-year-old remembered and snatched up Riley's hand. Again.

"See you later guys!" Nico shouted over his shoulder as he followed the two girls out.

"Nice to meet you Riley!" one of the twins shouted before they began sparring once more.

The three walked back to the field with the ring of cabins in silence. No one really felt the need to talk. It wasn't hard to tell that Riley was upset at not knowing who her mother was.

Eventually they reached the sky-blue building. As to be expected, out on the deck, two men were sitting at a little table playing a card game. Then again… man probably isn't the right word. One was, indeed, a man, but he had a sort of weird aura about him that Riley felt. The other, however, was a little stranger.

"Is that a…" Riley began to squeak.

"A centaur?" Rachel asked, "Yes."

From the waist up, the centaur looked like a regular middle-aged man, with brown hair that was tinted with grey, and a slightly wrinkled face, showing that he laughed a lot, but when you looked lower, he was a pure white stallion. Riley almost fainted on the spot.

"Riley," Nico said, "meet Chiron and Mr. D."

The two looked up from their game at the three and the centaur smiled. The short man just grunted and looked back at his cards.

"So is this the halfblood that you found Nico?" the stallion asked as he stepped forward to them, "I am Chiron, the activities director of the camp."

"My name's Riley, sir," she said and held out a hand. The centaur looked down at Riley and his eyes went wide, giving his expression an almost fearful look, but only for a moment. The smile soon returned and he shook the outstretched hand.

"Welcome to camp," he told her. The four walked over to the table and each took a seat. "This," the centaur continued, gesturing toward the pudgy man, who was chugging a Diet Coke, "is Mr. D. Who is the camp instructor."

Mr. D looked at Riley and, just as Chiron's did, widened his eyes, but then he narrowed them in suspicion. Riley scooted away from him, clearly uncomfortable. Finally the grumpy man sighed.

"Well I suppose I might as well say it now so I won't have to later," he grumbled, "Welcome to Camp Halfblood, I'm sure that your time here will serve for you to go out into the world only to be killed because of our wonderful training."

Mr. D looked to be expecting Riley to say something in return, so she did. "Um… thank you?"

He grunted his 'you're welcome'. Chiron coughed. "So Nico tells me that you don't know who your mother is," the centaur said.

"That's right," Riley nodded, still uncomfortable sitting next to Mr. D.

"And you're sixteen?" The girl nodded again. "Hm," Chiron mumbled. "And you've never been attacked by any monsters before last week?"

"Not that I know of," she answered.

"I asked her dad if she had when she was too young to remember, but he said no," Nico told the activities director. "Come to think of it," he muttered to himself, "we weren't attacked until just last week either."

Chiron looked over at Mr. D, who was drinking a Diet Coke and not listening to the conversation. (Or at least, that's what he was pretending to do.) "Well," he said, "we'll just have to wait until your mother claims you then."

All three suddenly heard the sound of a horn, the signal for dinner. "You three ought to go," Chiron told them. Rachel, Riley and Nico all left to their respective cabins. (Except for Rachel, who just went straight to the pavilion.)

"What do you think?" Chiron asked Dionysus as soon as the three were out of earshot.

Mr. D sipped some more Diet Coke and stared after the retreating demigods. Riley and Nico looked to be talking and laughing about something. "I don't like it," he finally muttered. Chiron looked concerned.

"So you really think-"

"Yes," the god answered. "I'll need to talk to the others about this soon," he sighed.

The centaur nodded and began walking toward the pavilion himself. "I believe I've won," he said before he left. Dionysus looked down at the hand Chiron had just laid and cursed in Greek.

"So what do you think of Mr. D?" Nico asked as they left the Big House.

"Is that really Dionysus?" she asked. Nico laughed and nodded. "For some reason I imagined him looking more like… well…"

"Not like a drunkard," he answered for her.

"Yeah." Even as she said it, Riley knew it sounded a bit silly. Of course the wine god would look a little tipsy. "But what was with that look he gave me?" she asked, genuinely concerned.

Nico didn't answer for a minute. He saw the look too, and he honestly didn't know what to make of it either. "He doesn't really like us campers," he finally answered, hoping that it was a legitimate reason. "He was probably trying to figure out the best name to make up for you, since he won't ever call you by your real one."

Riley couldn't come up with a better reason, so she just accepted the one she was given. Besides, by then they had reached the gigantic rectangle of cabins. There were actually two of them, but both the Hades cabin and the Hermes cabin were in one set. Nico's was standing behind Zeus's and Poseidon's, while Riley's was just where it apparently always has been, right next to the Dionysus cabin.

The Hermes cabin was definitely not as full as it used to be. Sure, it still had a couple of extra people, but with the gods promise, the only unclaimed demigods were younger than twelve and didn't usually take up that much room. It wasn't exactly comforting to Riley that she was the only undetermined child over twelve. Nor was it very fun to be shoved at the back of a line with around fourteen kids in it. Jessica had at least been kind enough to ignore the rule of seniority and join Riley at the back of the line. She knew well how hard it was to be alone at the Hermes table. It was not a fun experience.

The Stoll brothers lead the line, since they were over twenty and had been at the camp for nearly forever. As they lead them to the pavilion after the Dionysus cabin (which only had around three people in it) Riley looked around to try and get a summation of how many people were at the camp. It looked to be around two-hundred. According to Riku, Jess and Nico, more would arrive once summer started. The people there now were either the ones who couldn't afford to go home or didn't have one. Riley wanted to know what category she fit in. She lived in one home all her life and a single monster never attacked her. Her family loved her and she knew that she would always have a place there.

At the dining pavilion, Riley was shoved to the very end of the table. It didn't really make much of a difference to her since that's what used to happen at her old school often. She was too busy watching the nymphs bring in steaming barbeque to notice anyway. Even if she wasn't much of a barbeque person, Riley couldn't deny that it smelled and looked delicious. (And according to her three friends, it tasted just as good as it looked, if not better.)

"Say what drink you want," Jessica told her, now piling food onto her plate. "The cup will automatically fill up with whatever you say, as long as it's non-alcoholic."

Riley looked at her empty glass and said "Dr. Pepper." Sure enough, the cup was now full with the liquid. She took a sip, and it tasted just like the canned soda except maybe a little better. "Cool," she muttered, and started chugging it. The food by then had come around to her, and Riley began filling her plate with strawberries, barbequed tritip, and buttery rolls. As soon as Riley couldn't fit anything else onto her plate, she noticed that everyone was standing up and heading towards the fire in the middle of the pavilion.

"Sacrifice to the gods," Jess muttered to her and stood. Riley remembered the three mentioning it before, but she didn't really get what it meant.

Riley followed Jessica to the brazier and watched as everyone slipped a piece of their food into the fire, always the best piece. Jess had scraped a juicy slice of tritip into the fire and muttered "Hermes." Next was Riley. She flung the largest strawberry she had on her plate, but since she didn't know what to say, she stuck with "Um… whoever you are."

Before Riley had turned to leave, however, she swore she saw something odd happen to the strawberry. Instead of it burning in the flame, Riley could've sworn that it sank through the wood. She stayed for a few seconds and watched as another kid threw some food into the fire, but his just burnt like normal.

"Hey hurry up!" Jessica called to Riley, who was staring at the fire, mesmerized. The sixteen-year-old blinked and decided she must've been seeing things. So she followed her friend back to the Hermes table and ate her fill.


End file.
